Hopkins on Playing Tough Early Schedule

Huskies head coach discusses facing a handful of tournament teams to start season.

Transcript

00:00 Everybody's goal is to get to the NCAA tournament and

00:02 have a chance to win a national championship.

00:04 You gotta be tested.

00:05 We had a veteran team, first four to five games were NCAA tournament teams last year.

00:10 Three of the teams were in the top 25 or top 30 in the net that we've played.

00:15 You wanna get there, that's what you gotta do.

00:22 [LAUGH] Go to work.

00:24 That's not what people write, that's not what people say.

00:26 If there's that one truth, they're gonna put 40 minutes on that clock,

00:30 and you're gonna go out and play.

00:32 And it's an unbelievable opportunity.

00:34 And I tell you personally, just talking about our schedule,

00:37 I mean, this team that we played tonight was four and out before they came.

00:41 I mean, we don't have anything easy moving forward.

00:45 And we've been going one game at a time.

00:48 Obviously, Colorado State's playing hot.

00:50 They play Colorado tomorrow night, which we'll all be watching.

00:52 But just it's a great opportunity to play a really good team in a great city.

00:57 It's like, are you kidding me?

00:59 College basketball fan?

01:00 And we get to go to see us play the Ducks the night before?

01:03 I mean, are you kidding me?

01:07 I told our guys, this is a really cool, I want you to have this experience.

01:11 But remember, we're on a business trip too.

01:14 This is something where we get a chance to go watch that and hopefully get that

01:18 feeling, that inspiration that our football teams have inspired so many people.

01:22 And then have our opportunity on Saturday.